Walkthrough
Rotating Bridge
As you start the mission, the camera pans out across The Rotating Bridge, indicating that you need to reach the other side. You have to find the power source for the bridge to turn it, though, so run across the existing path and enter the Provisions Storeroom.
Provisions Storeroom (first half)
Taking a few steps will cause the door to seal and a new demon, the Arachne, to appear. These spiders have a hefty amount of health and are very difficult to knock off-balance, but thankfully are weak to Agni & Rudra. Their two primary attacks – a mad dash, and swiping at close range with their claws – are preceded by loud screeches and can be avoided by using Air Hike or a decently-timed side roll. They are also capable of trapping you with a shot of webbing, but the attack takes a few seconds to execute and is easy to recognize: their abdomens curl forward and begin to bulge. A well timed jump or side roll will do the trick for this too. Beware when an Arachne dies, though; if it rears up and splits in half, a cluster of baby Arachnes will appear where it died, and they are capable of jumping onto you and exploding to inflict minor damage. A second wave of Arachne will appear after you kill the first; after you defeat them too, the door to the Subterranean Garden will unseal.
Subterranean Garden
There's an alcove to the right of the waterfall beside the Divinity Statue here that contains a Blue Orb Fragment. Reaching it requires Air Hike, level 2 Trickster and Ebony & Ivory; do a full jump (press and hold the jump button until Dante no longer gains altitude) or a Wall Hike and a full Air Hike, then fire your handguns ONCE (this boosts your altitude by a small bit) and immediately use Sky Star into the alcove. It may take a few tries to reach it. At the far end of the map is the puzzle that unlocks the sealed door: a series of mirrors reflect a beam of light around and you must destroy certain mirrors so that the beam is redirected into the statue at the bottom. Hit the bottom middle and upper left mirrors (so that the light forms a backwards 4) to solve the light puzzle. Stand on top of the tablet to reveal a hidden Red Orb cache, then proceed to the Subground Water Vein.
Subground Water Vein
Enigmas are scattered along this U-shaped map but you can ignore them and run to the other end of the U. Side rolls work well for dodging the ones at the top of the incline, and the one at the bottom of the ramp (if you haven't shot it to death while standing at the door you entered from) usually has a hard time hitting you because of your movement angle. Take the door to the first Rounded Pathway.
Rounded Pathway (first half)
Some demons spawn here, but they do not need to be defeated to continue. It's probably a good idea to kill them for Orbs and Style rank, but beware of the environmental hazards: The spinning columns on the walls will damage you and knock you over if you touch them, so stay toward the center of the path and jump over the demons instead. The Subterranean Lake is through the opposite door.
Subterranean Lake
Jump over the broken wall to the right to find a collection of Red Orbs, and jump onto the second floor by standing on the wall to reach more Red Orbs as well as a floating Green Orb, then head toward the main portion of the map. Head into the door beside the Divinity Statue to reach the second Rounded Pathway.
Run to the far side of the zone, past the waterfall, and jump up onto the pillars to collect the orbs. From there, jump onto the second floor area, where you can find the gun Spiral on a stone pedestal. This gun is long-range and has high damage that incurs knockback on most lesser demons; furthermore, its shots will pierce through all targets in its path until it hits a solid surface. Also nearby is a Combat Adjudicator with purple flames, but you can't break this until the next mission.
Rounded Pathway (second half)
An Enigma is past the first set of spinning columns; you can hide in the corner right in front of it to wait for a safe moment to strike. Another Enigma is just a little further down, and you can take cover in the same way behind the nearest wall. Grab the two Red Orbs that are in the two upper corners near the end of the hallway before entering the second Provisions Storeroom.
Provisions Storeroom (second half)
Here you'll find the key item Ambrosia resting on a small altar. Taking it will spawn two waves of Arachnes. Defeat them to unseal the door, then start backtracking. The Enigmas, at this angle, won't fire at you until they're visible on camera, which makes taking them out easier. Go back out the way you came, back to the Subterranean Lake. Use the Divinity Statue to adjust your arsenal if you wish, for a boss fight awaits a few maps away. Head into the waterfall now to reach the Limestone Cavern.
Limestone Cavern
A variety of Hells (Prides, Gluttonies, Lusts, Sloths, varies by difficulty), or a swarm of Blood-goyles on harder difficulties, populates this map. They're optional, though. Turn your attention instead to an opening across from the cave entrance. There are several glowing crystals here, marking the Secret Mission "Destroyer", where you must destroy all breakables in the Bullseye map. If you go further down, you'll drop down among the lesser demons. Head to the left to find some Red Orbs and a Devil Star hidden away in a smaller cavern. Jump back up, then head toward the far side of the map where a bridge leads to a door. Examine it to unlock it using the Ambrosia, then enter the Sunken Opera House and prepare to fight the boss.
Sunken Opera House
Step forward into the room to trigger a cutscene with Nevan. Once it ends, the boss battle begins.
Boss: Nevan the Lightning Witch
Attacks
Nevan has a variety of attacks, all of which are telegraphed well in advance:
- "Get ready... Sugar!" (Feedback): If you stand too close to her, she'll respond with a stationary whirling attack preceded by “Get ready...”. You only need to move away about the distance of a single Dash (or a full backflip) and it won't hit you, and you can shoot her or charge moves (such as Drive and Crystal) while she's spinning. As the battle continues, she will use the backwards flip kick in an attempt to catch you off guard before using this.
- "How's This?/Don't you like me? (Nevan Combo/Distortion)": She can fire lightning-charged bats at you in two varieties – the first fires several separate groups of bats, preceded by “How's this?” and the second fires one large swarm that moves more quickly (“Don't you like me?”). Both can be avoided by a decently timed jump to one side.
- Sometimes she'll follow the bats by floating right up to you and do a backwards flip-kick, sending a few waves of darkness at you. The attack is relatively slow and is readily avoided by simply running around her. Sometimes she follows this attack by a bout of laughing, giving you time to break her shield.
- "Now you will become tired!": Nevan will retreat to one of the platforms at the ends of the opera house and call one or more beams of white energy from the ground, similar to the "Calling Dead Souls" ability of Phantom. When her health is still high, there will only be one column. As she gets weaker, and as the difficulty gets higher, more will appear. Dodge this attack by running away from the white circles in the ground.
- Ground Charge: She's capable of disappearing and rematerializing at either end of the map (she'll appear on the side you're farthest from); she'll then cackle as the ground crackles a bit with electricity, then floods with an electric charge. You can jump over the burst and hover with your guns or Swordmaster aerials if needed, but the raised platforms on either side of the map are safe to stand on, given that Nevan isn't on the side you choose, (though the bigger set of steps near the stage area are safe even if Nevan is on that side, so long as you aren't standing too close to her).
- "Are you enjoying yourself?: She typically follows the ground-charge attack with a series of lightning bolt attacks from where she stands. They come in horizontal and vertical bolts and are preceded by “Are you enjoying yourself?” They move in straight lines toward you when Nevan conjures the bolts, so avoiding them is as easy as running from left to right between castings.
- Defenseless Snare: As you break her barrier, Nevan will be left helpless, allowing you to take full advantage of her powerlessness. While attacking her is fully open as an option, take heed of the dark shadow that pools around her as time goes on, as she eventually will fully recover, form a barrier of this darkness and have it crush Dante if he is around her too long. As long as one has enough DT, Devil Trigger renders one immune to this attack as long as it's activated.
- Greater Swarm (Volume Up): As the battle continues, Nevan's flock of bats will increase greatly in number, giving her more range and endurance to her attacks as well as increase her barrier's endurance. One can tell by the length of the skirt she wears, and it and its effects will shrink until the bats all are exterminated. Through this, her Nevan Combo swarm will be greater in projectiles fired, Distortion will see a larger and harder hitting blast, and Feedback will see a greater radius which she will spin her skirt's blades.
- "You can't escape!": When her health is less than 25% remaining, she may disappear and rematerialize in the middle of the map (Closest on the side to you) and break her own shield. To further telegraph this attack, she'll say, “You can't escape!”. She floats up to you and latches on via a kiss, then proceeds to drain your health to fill hers. When you see her begin this attack, you can simply activate either Dante's Devil Trigger form, or using the special moves of Quicksilver/Doppelganger to prevent her from even grabbing you, then just pound away at her while she's helpless. If you don't have enough runes, you can also jump over her as she approaches, then begin attacking. A much safer strategy is to run away when she teleports near you and go to a far away location, and run and attack when she stops, although you will only get a little bit of damage done to her, thus making it long and tedious.
Strategy
First playthrough
Nevan is weak to Cerberus' ice element, but this fight can still be tedious because she doesn't take damage until you destroy her bat shield (how much of it left is signified by how tall her “dress” of bats is). Firing at it from a safe distance takes too long; it's much quicker to get up close and use your Devil Arms to destroy it (Aerial Cross and Helm Breaker work well for this).
To kill her faster, stand close to Nevan until she says "Get ready..." and dodge her attack after that. Keep using Crystal and Million Carats when she whirls. Then, when she stops whirling, use that opportunity to destroy her "dress" and she will fall to the ground. That is also your chance to damage her. Watch out for the darkness beneath her when she falls. That darkness will damage anyone in its radius but this attack is slow. After 3.5 seconds, Dash or run away from the darkness so that it won't damage you. Repeat this procedure. For the beginners, try to dodge her attacks and attack her with Cerberus, thus removing her shield quicker. Then, you quickly evade her close attacks and wait for her next move. When she gets weakened, DT (Cerberus) and put the hurt on her. DT Dante doesn't flinch at her darkness counter (see above) but he still takes some damage. Quickly cancel the DT to preserve some runes. Rinse and repeat until she reaches her health-drain state, which you can find the beginners solution for in the "attacks" section.
Second playthrough
Use Swordmaster and Beowulf. Real Impact or fully charged Straight will destroy her shield in one hit and as long as you start the move relatively early, it'll connect and stop her whirling attack just in time. Nevan also happens to be weak to Beowulf; with these two new advantages, the fight is sped up considerably. If you're quick, you can actually lock her in a loop: Break her shield, attack her until she escapes (remember that she runs to the farther side of the operahouse), then repeat the process either until you down her, or until she breaks from the loop (usually when she's at very low health, so just let her attempt to vampire you for an attack opening). Also, the Quicksilver Style is really helpful here. When her bat shield is destroyed, simply cast Time Lag then lay the smackdown on Nevan when she's helpless. This way, you can deal massive damage to her and defeat her in a few tries.
For Vergil
Having bought Judgement Cut Lv.2 proves to be extremely useful here, although you must learn how to time all three of the Judgement Cuts accurately, so practice how to time them before you fight her. Always stand close to her. When she's about to do the whirling attack by saying "Get ready...", back up a little bit and use Judgement Cut. Three successful hits will instantly destroy her dress and you can proceed to do massive damage on her with Beowulf. After that, she'll teleport to the other side of the Opera House. Follow her closely after she teleported by Air Tricking. Repeat the procedure. If you are too slow, she might electrify the floor. Just Trick Up and use Aerial Rave or stand at the nearest platform. If she summons the bats however, side rolling will avoid all of them.
Grab the orbs that Nevan drops after Dante rocks out, and head through the second opera house door (the one you came in from is sealed) to end the mission.
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